Story
The story of Leuven Town Hall
Look closely at this facade and you will see stone worked like lace. Leuven's Town Hall was built in the Brabantine late-Gothic style between 1439 and 1469. Its first architect, Sulpitius van Vorst, died soon after work began, and his successor Jan Keldermans II died in 1445. Work resumed in 1448 under Matheus de Layens, and the first stone of the front building was laid on 28 March that year.
De Layens turned the original plan for a corner belfry into the symmetrical turrets you see today. The niches hold 236 statues, all made after 1850: on the first floor figures from local history, on the second patron saints and symbolic figures, and on the third the Counts of Leuven and Dukes of Brabant.
The carved corbels beneath them show Bible scenes, with guilt and penance as a recurring theme. The building survived the First World War with minor damage, but after a Second World War bomb, repairs lasted until 1983.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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More highlights in Leuven
- Great Beguinage of LeuvenThe Great Beguinage of Leuven is a well-preserved beguinage and completely restored historical quarter containing a dozen streets in the south of downtown Leuven, Belgium.
- St. Peter's Church, LeuvenSaint Peter's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Leuven, Belgium, built in the 15th century in the Brabantine Gothic style. The church has a cruciform floor plan and a low bell tower that has never been completed.
- VolmolenFormer water-driven fulling mill where the Dijle enters Leuven, built on the Grote Spui sluice complex, one of the two water gates of the 14th-century city wall.
- Old Market of LeuvenThe Oude Markt (Dutch for "Old Market") is a rectangular square in the centre of Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, that largely consists of catering establishments. This is why it is nicknamed the "longest bar in the world".
- Sint-Donatus ParkThe Sint-Donatus Park is a public urban park in the historic centre of Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. The park combines a landscape garden dating from the 19th century with surviving remnants of Leuven's medieval fortification.
- M LeuvenM Leuven or simply M is an art museum in the inner city of Leuven, Belgium, which was officially opened in 2009. The museum has a collection of some 46,000 works, which range from late-Gothic paintings and sculptures to 16th century local artists such as Jan Rombouts the…